Customer Reviews

This Affair Never Happened

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I don't know why more people haven't reviewed this album yet. It's hard to believe. I mean, out of all the people who write reviews on Amazon, only 1 has actually put one down? Geez... I don't know what that says about this band or this album.

This is the first and only Bigger Lovers' album I have (I do plan to buy the others), so maybe I have a somewhat limited take on this band. But I love this CD. It ranks as one of my favorite new CD purchases over the past 12 months...and that's not an easy list to get on.

The first track grabs you right off the bat. A little bit anthemic, a little bit whiney, and a little bit like a taunt "You, You, You" is the perfect opener for a CD less about love and more about getting burned. Then "I Resign" comes on and you slide into a catchy, poppy comfort zone of the CD. I don't know if it ever made the radio, but it should have as a single.

"No Heroics" with its slow, haunting beat is about as melancholy as you can get---"What has passed since last we had a laugh/At one another's expense"---making it one of the best slow tracks on the album.

Probably the best track on TANH is "For Christ's Sake" and it certainly fits best at the end. For me, this song just reeks emotion. Don't let the holiday imagery fool you, this song is not full of Christmas cheer. When you hear that chorus "So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year..." it makes you either want to sing along defiantly as you denounce your heartbreak or curl up in the fetal position weeping over your loneliness.


But unlike the holidays, this lasts year round.

So many indie-rock bands sound alike that the difference between liking or rejecting one over another comes down to relatively qualifiable aspects: song structures, verbal content, musicianship. In the promising-to-excellent category are The Long Winters, Kaito UK, The Shins. In the bubbling under spot are The Jealous Sound, the perennial Superdrag, the 88's. Often, a bit of exoticism is enough to set a group apart; for instance, Kaito UK's near-worship of Essential Logic's framentary songs. Hailing from Pennsylvania, The Bigger Lovers are somewhere between promising and bubbling under. On their third release, This Affair Never Happened, they keep the songs interesting enough, but rarely are they invested with the breakneck passion or devotional concentration that elevates the material to must-hear status. Good sign: the second best tune is a ballad called "For Christ's Sake". Bad sign: the best tune, "You've Got to Pay", was not written by the band.